Friday, February 21, 2014

HAPPY DAY!!!

HE GOT IN!!!

So I totally thought the lottery draw was at 10:00 this morning. Clarissa and I were moving kind of slow this morning, not in a hurry. At 8:40 I decided that I'd better go get in the shower so we'd be ready to go to be there at 10:00.

Right before I got in the shower I thought I'd better double check that it was at 10:00. I double checked. It was at 9:00.  Crap!! I threw some clothes on, yelled to Clarissa to get dressed and we grabbed our stuff and ran out the door.

We made it in time, thank goodness. The lottery draw was held at the district office, which just coincidentally is attached to the other end of the high school he was trying to get into. I had no idea what to expect when I got there. I think they have to make the lottery draw public so that everyone can see that it's legit, but I wasn't sure if anyone actually goes.

I should have figured that the parents of overachiever kids are the kind of people who would show up for that sort of thing, lol. I wasn't the only one there. Not even close!

So they assigned every kid who applied a number, which they told us when we went in, and then the lottery was just a computer generated number list. The computer randomly shuffled the numbers and spit out a list. They had it all up on a big projector screen.

They had just under 400 applications. They drew 170 names for placement and then 25 more for a waiting list. I was so nervous I could barely sit still. It ridiculous how worked up we've gotten over this whole school thing. You would think it was a lottery process for Harvard or something, lol. I realize that it's not, but he just reeeeeally wants to go this school.

When the computer spit out the list of numbers I saw his immediately. Out of the 170 numbers that were chosen, he was 31st on the list. What a relief!!

I stuck around while they went through the list and announced all the names that went with the numbers to see if anyone he knew got in. The girl who is his friend but isn't his girlfriend because I can't even with that did not get in. I was sad for him and for her. She really wants to go and she would do awesome there. It's still possible that they will draw more names if they go though the waiting list, but she'll have to wait and see.

But one of Josh's friends who goes to our church got in, which I'm excited about. His best friend from elementary school who he lost touch with after they went to different middle schools got in, which Josh is thrilled about! Because there are so many charter schools and other specialized school options here, everyone being shuffled around is common. Kids split up for different charter and magnet schools and lose touch and then some of them eventually end up together again. It will be fun for him to reunite with some old friends he hasn't seen in a while.

After the lottery was over I drove over to his school and had him pulled out of class so I could tell him the news. I know he's been stressing out about it and I didn't want him to have to worry about it any longer than he had to. He was really happy to hear the news!!

So it's all good. He got in and now we can stop worrying about it. I really think he's going to thrive
there. I feel good about him being in that environment and I think he's going to fit right in.

And the good news is that if Matthew decides he wants to go there in a few years, we won't have to go through all of this again because Josh will be a senior there when Matthew is a freshmen and siblings get pulled first in the lottery so he's pretty much guaranteed to get in. Nice.

So I think maybe I'll plan some sort of celebration tonight. I love celebrating good news! It's a happy day at our house!  :)



1 comment:

Wendy said...

Wow, small world! :) How fun to hear from someone who had a kid there. We're really excited about the school. It sounds intense, but it seems like a great opportunity for kids who like that sort of thing, and my son definitely does! He's been on cloud nine all weekend. He's really excited!